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Cringe-inducing, well-made and funny but never truly exceptional and generally unmemorable.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Reviewed by comps-784-382659 / 10

Painful Comedy Showing The Character 'David Brent' unsuited as a subject for a film

Being a huge Ricky Gervais fan, particularly because of The Office,
part of me couldn't wait for this film, but the other part of me had
its reservations. And as was the case with Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa,
I feared the TV to film transition might be a bit of an obstacle, and
this unfortunately seemed to be the case.The film starts well with the laughs cumin (ask me how I'm spelling it.
C-U-M-I-N) every few seconds, introducing us to his new office and from
the get-go, we establish who will play which role in the film - the
love interest, the bad guy (if they can be called that), the geeky,
lovable friend, and so on. These roles stay consistent, rarely
challenging the audiences' expectations, moving forward a predictable
narrative throughout the film. That being said, twists and turns
weren't necessarily expected and the pay-offs at the end were still
warmly welcomed and, as with The Office finale, quite emotional.Having started strongly, the film slows down quite considerably in the
middle third, without a lot of story and/or complications. It really
becomes a montage of failures for Brent where he is almost always the
butt of every joke. And as the film progresses, Brent goes from typical
Brent - arrogant yet embarrassing - to pathetic, to just feeling sorry
for him. And at times when we're supposed to be laughing at him, I just
felt like I couldn't bring myself to laugh at him anymore. It's at this
point that he strays from the character of David Brent in a film which
could have easily been renamed Derek: Life on the Road. The film
becomes very much an emotionally-driven experience at the expense of
humour. The emotional elements of the film in the last 20 or so minutes
were strong however, but they just felt a bit too sad for the spin-off
of one of the most loved UK comedy characters of all time. It cannot be
disputed, however, that we do not see a concluding development of Brent
as a person, because to see the more human side to Brent was
refreshing.The cast of the film, unlike The Office, which consisted of largely
unknown actors at the time, consists of almost every actor in a UK
sitcom in the last 5 years and a handful of comedy panelists. Ricky
does act brilliantly in this (although his vocal exhale/laugh
combination does start to get a bit annoying after the 50th time of
hearing it). Mandeep Dhillon, as the receptionist, was brilliant and
did a great job of maintaining the documentary feel and therefore the
real emotion of the film and of the character of David Brent towards
the end. Doc Brown as Dom was also very good and I'm glad he was so
involved after their Comic Relief single 'Equality Street' a few years
back. The songs used throughout, as released in an album alongside the
film, are so funny yet also brilliant melodically.It's a must-watch for any David Brent fan, and as much as I'd love to
give it more than a 7 (I gave The Office a perfect 10), the title song
summarises the experience quite nicely - foot down to the floor, the
film only ever gets to 70 miles per hour and no more.

Reviewed by andyg_19929 / 10

70 Miles Per Hour But No More

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Reviewed by whynotgoglobal9 / 10

Ricky Gervais lets sentimentality get the better of him - again

It's fair to say that 'The Office' was a well-observed mockumentary
sit-com about the everyday mundanity of office life. A rare thing in a
sit-com that seemed to improve as it went, making strong social comment
along with laughs. But since the success of 'The Office', the Gervais-Merchant writing
team have delved into difficult areas; the social comment, and laughs,
declining as they went. 'Extras' felt indulgent and 'Life's Too Short'
short on a lot of things. Much like Steve Coogan with Alan Partridge
before him, Ricky Gervais - after some time away in Hollywood - has now
returned to the character that first made his name. However, this time
Stephen Merchant isn't anywhere to be found. As explored in the final Christmas episodes, David Brent is now working
in the Berkshire area as a sales rep for a cleaning company. But,
self-absorbed as ever, having saved some money, he takes some time off
work, hires a backing band and sound engineer and organises a 'tour' of
the region, living out his dream of being a musician. But, inevitably,
his dream falls short for a second time. The film, therefore, is a building on one of the famous 'The Office'
moments, where Brent 'went home to get' his guitar and tells the story
of his former dream during a rather unsuccessful training day. What
starts off as an adlibbed piece in a thirty minute episode becomes a
feature film. There is a hint of over-indulgence here. When asked why there were so many songs in 'Bigger, Longer and Uncut',
Trey Parker and Matt Stone replied that they 'wanted to be rock stars.'
Gervais himself is a former musician, in a band that never quite made
it. 'David Brent: Life on the Road', therefore, is a vehicle for
Gervais to have his music heard on a wider scale. While these are songs
designed to be comical, they are passable as songs written by someone
who knows his stuff, rather than coming across as too amateurish. But
with so much screen time dedicated to live performances, the songs are
neither good, nor funny, enough to justify the focus. No doubt one of the funniest elements of 'The Office' was Brent's
awkwardness when faced with sensitive subjects, such as race,
disability and sexuality. A lot of the songs featured are along similar
lines (literally), with awkward lyrics bordering on the offensive.
While no offence is intended, the fact that it has become such an
important part of his comedy over the years shows perhaps the frequent
post-irony at play has left Gervais confused as to his own thoughts on
the subjects. Moments become awkward, but for the wrong reasons. There are laughs here: some office bants still feature; and some of the
songs do hit the funny bone on occasion. But one thing that's missing
here is the others: Gareth, Tim and Dawn were all important parts of
'The Office' structure, and Brent's playing off them is what made it so
strong. Here though, they are not present, and his interactions with
the band - with the exception of Doc Brown's Dom - are kept on stage,
lacking the natural flow of the series.But, more importantly, it may be the absence of Merchant that is most
noticeable. Gervais needed the second writer to reign the Brent within
and stop this feeling like life imitating art.As Richard Herring would say: 'They should have put Tim from 'The
Office' in it.'